1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to an aircraft flight data acquisition and transmission system and, more particularly, to an on-board cellular data transmission system.
2. Description of the Background
It is common for aircraft to generate records of data relating to flight and performance parameters for each flight of the aircraft. The data typically relate to parameters such as air speed, altitude, vertical acceleration, heading, time, etc. The data are utilized in the event of an accident or a near-accident and to assist in maintenance of the aircraft by detecting faulty components or gradual deterioration of a system or component, to assist in reviewing crew performance, and to assist in logistical planning activities such as scheduling and routing.
Aircraft data are typically gathered by a digital flight data acquisition unit (DFDAU). The DFDAU typically stores the data on magnetic or magnetic-optical media. When the aircraft lands, ground personnel board the aircraft, remove the media, and mail the media to a flight operations center (FOC). The manual removal and posting of the data adds a significant labor cost, yields less than desirable data delivery reliability, and results in a significant time delay before the data are useful for analysis.
It is known to use radio frequency (RF) transmissions to transmit data relating to an aircraft. Such teachings, however, require substantial investments to construct the RF transmission systems required for such a system to work. Furthermore, it is very expensive to create redundancy in such a system.
It is also known to transmit data relating to an aircraft via a telephone system located in a terminal. Such a system, however, requires that the aircraft be docked at the gate before transmission begins, thereby resulting in a substantial delay in the transmission. Furthermore, such a system requires an added step of transmitting the data from the aircraft to the terminal telephone system, increasing the cost of installing, operating, and maintaining such a system.
Thus, there is a need for an aircraft data transmission system that automatically transfers flight data from an aircraft to a flight operations center with little or no human involvement and which relies on a reliable wireless delivery system.